Saturday, February 16, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Facebook said that they have been "targeted in a sophisticated attack” last month, but that it found no evidence any user data was compromised.

In a blog post, Facebook said that the malware came from an infected website of a mobile developer and that “we remediated all infected machines, informed law enforcement, and began a significant investigation that continues to this day.”

The attackers used a previously unseen exploit taking advantage of a flaw in Java software made by Oracle, which was alerted to the situation and released a patch the first of February, according to Facebook.

The hackers appeared to be targeting developers and technology firms based on the website they chose to booby-trap with malicious code.

“Facebook was not alone in this attack,” the Northern California-based company said.

“It is clear that others were attacked and infiltrated recently as well.” The US intelligence community has concluded that America is the target of a massive cyber-espionage campaign that is threatening its competitiveness, The Washington Post reported just days ago.

Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the conclusion is contained in the National Intelligence Estimate, a classified report that represents the consensus view of the US intelligence community.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Korean news "Chosun Ilbo" reported that the battery of Samsung Galaxy Note blew up while it was inside the pocket of a 55-year old man. The man was reportedly carrying the phone with a spare battery in his pocket when the explosion occurred. It is not clear if it was the spare battery that caused the explosion, or the battery inside the Galaxy Note. The man reportedly suffered second degree burns to his right thigh.

The Bupyeong Fire Station in Incheon was called to the scene of the accident.

A Samsung spokesman in Korea downplayed the incident:

“Lithium ion batteries can catch fire due to external pressure or sudden changes in temperature, so we’re trying to understand what really happened.”

The report notes this is the second such incident involving a Samsung Galaxy smartphone in the country, after a schoolboy suffered an injury when his Galaxy S II exploded in his trouser pockets in March last year.